Posts Tagged ‘General Motors’

Day 3 of Miami to Alaska Family Road Trip: A True Magic Kingdom Visit for the Ages

We couldn't believe the incredible blessing we had to be THE family chosen to open the Magic Kingdom! This photo was taken from the Main Street U.S.A. train station platform. Below us thousands of people.

The experience was so powerful I couldn't put my little camera down.

This was only part of our family's view from above the Main Street U.S.A. train station.

Surreal.  Unbelievable.  Magical.

When my wife and I thought about a cool way to launch this summer’s epic family road trip from Miami to Alaska we didn’t dream of what Disney randomly selected us to do Friday: be THE official family guests opening the entire Magic Kingdom!

In the annals of our family’s legendary traveling history – and we’ve logged more than 14,000 miles in four years of combined trips – we’ve had some really cool experiences but nothing so far compares to opening the Magic Kingdom, a Disney tradition that one lucky family gets daily.

Our family aboard the famous antique Disney fire truck.

The park opening experience included: (more…)

The Day I ALMOST Became an Official Car Worshipper

This Firebird concept car, the first one, literally cannot be driven anywhere but in salt fields because it moves with jet propulsion that would burn away any asphalt road. Of course, like most of the coolest cars all the automakers produce, it's "experimental." (Copyright PapiBlogger, 2011)

Ok, before I go anywhere too strange with this, let me start by saying that the folks at General Motors got me THISCLOSE to actually becoming an official car enthusiast.  Given that I’m in Detroit for their world class auto show you might assume that this is the natural progression of being dazzled by all of the latest and greatest toy cars on display but that’s not what tantalized me.  What got me THISCLOSE to worshipping cars was actually visiting the hallowed grounds of General Motors Heritage Center, a huge, private access museum that’s a 30-minute drive outside of Detroit.

This 1911 Oldsmobile Limited is GM's most prized car, the automaker's Mona Lisa of vehicles and is worth between $2 and $8 million. In 1915 this vehicle, only one of three surviving, retailed for $5,000, an astounding figure for its time. (Copyright PapiBlogger, 2011)

GM's Heritage car exhibit has all of the automaker's most prized vehicles and is more impressive than any car collection you'll ever see. Even a car novice like me was blown away by it. (Copyright PapiBlogger, 2011)

You want to talk about a car exhibit that blows your socks off?  Nothing in the fancy halls of the Detroit auto show remotely compares to GM’s collection and I wasn’t the only one who felt like that.  All the fanatical car bloggers that came with me were saying the same thing, drool spilling from their mouthes as they literally almost started worshipping the vehicles in front of me.

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On Day 31, PapiBlogger Family Sees First Major League Baseball Game and Gets an Inside Tour of General Motors’ OnStar Center

Baby Briani gives her ticket scanned for her first Major League Baseball game at Detroit Tiger's Comerica Park.

On the 31st Day of the PapiBlogger Family Road Trip, the Ruiz clan traveled from Chicago to Detroit where we visited General Motor’s OnStar service headquarters and also enjoyed our first Major League Baseball game together ever as a family at the Tiger’s Comerica Park.

ONSTAR’S CENTRAL COMMAND CENTER

OnStar's Central Command looks like a war room.

Jonathan takes the OnStar test vehicle for a virtual drive.

Following a five hour drive from Chicago to Detroit we landed at the General Motors headquarters building for an exclusive inside tour of OnStar’s central command center.

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The Improvise, Adapt and Overcome Trick to a 40-Day Family Road Trip

In 2007, Angela and I went on a two-week Christian mission trip to the African nation of Rwanda to take labor, love, medicines and other scarce resources.  Rwanda is where in 1994, over the span of just 90 days or so, nearly 1 million people were killed in what is considered the worst genocide since the Holocaust.

In preparation for that trip into a far and unknown land, the organizing pastor  told us that the most important thing we should do to mentally gear up for it was to remember the unofficial motto of the United States Marines: Improvise, Adapt, Overcome. (more…)